When you begin to seek the “Holy Life”
you will begin to experience…

“The God Who Answers by Fire”

You will be seeking the Lord, His righteousness and holiness and suddenly your life will be thrown in to great turmoil and chaos will begin to rule. Every type of issue will arise and everything that is in you that is not of God will be revealed. How will a man deal with his addictions, his deeply hidden sin issues if he is unaware or unwilling to address them?

“There is a God who answers by Fire to burn out all that is not of Him!” It is a Fire that will nearly drive you to the very edge of your existence. Where the immense pain of the fire of sanctification can be to the spirit just as intense as the physical fire to the body.

This Fire will cause frustration, anger and every old sin to raise its ugly head and will cause further frustration with self when those sins come forth.

You will have moments, days, weeks and sometimes years when you will not know what has happened to you. All is well and suddenly, an all-out ambush will occur! It will come from places you never expected, from people you loved and trusted. And all those issues you thought were resolved dead and buried will re-surface and will force you to your knees, cause injury to your spirit and will break your heart.

You will count your life as failure! All of those past victories are but a fading memory.

All of those intimate moments with Him will become as a vapor. All of those warm fuzzy tender times will seem as if they never existed. Where did He go? Where is His presence? What sin have I committed to bring this upon myself? The questions go on and on, seemingly without answers.

Your outward man will physically cry out while your inward man will at times go through depression that will not be quieted. Your heart will be splintered. A part of your spirit will want to run from Him and the other part of your spirit will be as the child who passionately desires to be picked up and loved yet love is not seen in this valley. His arms have been retracted, His grace cannot be found, and you lie helplessly in the midst of emptiness, emotionally naked and drawn to the place of your demise that covers your soul.

The lessons will be beyond painful, for this is to the death!This is His Consuming Fire!

Sorrow will surround you. Loneliness and separation will approach you from every direction. You will come to the decision that you are of no use to friends, family or to God! Your heart will say, “They deserve better from me.” And there is nothing that you can actively say or do that will give you worth. You will feel that your best days are behind you!

Every prayer both verbal and silent to relieve your suffering will be of no avail. You will find it almost impossible to praise or worship Him. Those prayers of supplication will not penetrate the heavenlies but will drop to the floor. All communication lines have been severed and all fellowship with your Lord will have ceased.

He will remove every crutch, every prop and seal off every escape. He will box you in to where you cannot make forward progress, there will be no room to side step and there is no advantage to retreat. Your only choice will be to live day by day and walk through this fire!

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Matt 27:50-51

When that veil that covers your heart is torn, you will begin to experience your own death!

It is then and only then, you will be in the perfect place of Sanctification!

Many years ago I heard the following.Every mountain top experience will be followed by a walk through the desert,but it is the desert that reveals the true temper of the steel.

Our greatest light and our highest revelations will come from those times we spend walking through the Fire! Every revelation has a cost involved! We can- not gain more unless there is a loss! This is true in the natural and mirrors the spiritual.

Just as Isaiah received a greater understanding of the Holiness of God.

As Elijah demonstrated that He is the God who answers by fire.

You too, if you persist, will receive that intimacy, that revelation and that power that will come to those who are willing to allow “this work of fire” in their lives.

Many times your only solace will be “ToKnowthat He is God” and He loves you and has prepared His best for you. Do not be in fear, He is always present!

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward (the spirit) man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18

When we begin to seek the holy lifeWe can expectHe is the God who answers by fire!